The Patient and Family Engagement focus aims to build support among hospital teams for family engagement in ILPQC’s quality improvement initiatives and provide tools for the recruitment, training, and engagement of patients as valued and active members of quality improvement teams.

ILPQC has worked with the Preeclampsia Foundation, March of Dimes, and Hand to Hold to identify passionate volunteers to serve as Patient Advisors for hospital teams. We know that patient engagement in healthcare results in better quality of care and patient experience. Patient stories can help to contextualize the patient experience for hospital providers and staff involved in quality improvement. Patient perspective will help to identify key areas where patient care can be improved from patient education materials to processes for setting up follow up appointments.

It is the goal of the collaborative that every hospital QI team has a Patient Advisor participating in some capacity to advance ILPQC’s aim of improving outcomes for moms and babies.